Williamsburg heading to boys’ state basketball tournament

CEDAR RAPIDS — Last spring’s state track and field champion. This fall’s state football champion.

Could it be this winter’s state basketball champion next?

Williamsburg gave itself a chance to do that Monday night when it beat Keokuk, 51-40, in a Class 3A substate final at Alliant Energy PowerHouse. The Raiders head to Des Moines next week as the eighth seed in the class, drawing No. 1 Decorah in a quarterfinal game Tuesday, March 5, at Wells Fargo Arena.

These kids just know how to win, man.

“I know we’ve been playing our best basketball,” said Williamsburg Coach Brad Knoop. “It just took us jelling. With the football guys, the mindset, all these guys being multi-sport athletes. They competed at state track finals, they competed in two state finals in football. Basketball, they’ve been part of back-to-back conference championships.

“Winners win. They know what it takes, they just had to believe in themselves and get after it. I think we did. Just guys carrying each other a little bit.”

Derek Weisskopf has done a lot of carrying in his multi-sport career, and that includes on the court. The University of Iowa football recruit been a four-year starter, a multiple-year all-stater as a forward, a guy who originally thought he would be pursuing a Division I college basketball career.

He led the way here with 21 points, punctuating this wire-to-wire victory with an authoritative one-handed dunk in the final minute.

“It just being my senior year, getting to Wells means everything to me,” Weisskopf said.

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Williamsburg (16-8) led after a slow first quarter, 9-5, extended its edge to 26-13 at the halftime break and built as much as a 20-point lead in the second half. The Raiders may not have played the sharpest game, but Keokuk (17-7) couldn’t hit water if it fell out of a boat in this game shooting wise, going 2 for 23 from 3-point range, 8 of 15 from the free-throw stripe and shooting 28 percent overall from the field.

Big 6-foot-9 center Jaxon Frost had 16 points for Keokuk, but Williamsburg made it difficult for him on the inside, and, obviously, not one else was able to step up and create consistent offense.

“We’ve just been grinding through games, especially this one,” Weisskopf said. “It wasn’t the prettiest. But we got through it, and, hey, we’re there (to the state tournament).”

So many of these guys played for Williamsburg’s championship football team, so a slow start to hoops season was sort of expected. Knoop said he felt his team has been playing well the final three weeks or so, even though a couple of games in that span were tough losses on last-second shots: one to Marion, the other to Clear Creek Amana.

Williamsburg took care of CCA in last week’s substate semifinals.

“At first, we started out kind of sloppy,” said Williamsburg forward Kellen Cockrell, who had eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds. “A lot of turnovers and stuff like that. As the season went on, we just started getting better and better. Then we started gluing together as a team, figured out who was good at what. Who to get the ball to and where in situations.”

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Photos: Williamsburg vs. Keokuk in Class 3A boys’ basketball substate final

Williamsburg 51, Keokuk 40

AT ALLIANT ENERGY POWERHOUSE

KEOKUK (40): Tramell Smith 0-4 0-0 0, Jaxon Clark 6-10 3-4 16, Brenton Hoard 3-9 3-5 9, Chase Eckland 0-7 0-0 0, Diego Garcia 4-16 2-6 10, Drew Campbell 0-3 0-0 0, Julius Clay 0-1 0-0 0, Bode Beagles 1-2 0-0 2, Lucas Thompson 1-1 0-0 3, Chevy Barnes 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-53 8-15 40.

WILLIAMSBURG (51): Braden Plotz 2-6 1-2 5, Kellen Cockrell 3-6 2-4 8, Derek Weisskopf 8-20 4-4 21, Grant Hocker 4-9 0-0 9, Clayten Steckly 1-4 0-0 2, Bryson Wetjen 0-0 0-0 0, Simeon Ambrecht 2-2 0-0 4, Logan Rethwisch 0-0 0-0 0, John Eichhorn 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 21-48 7-10 51.

Halftime - Williamsburg 26, Keokuk 13. 3-point goals - Keokuk 2-23 (Smith 0-3, Clark 1-3, Hoard 0-4, Eckland 0-4, Garcia 0-5, Campbell 0-2, Clay 0-1, Thompson 1-1), Williamsburg 2-12 (Cockrell 0-2, Weisskopf 1-5, Hocker 1-3, Steckly 0-2). Rebounds - Keokuk 32 (Clark 12), Williamsburg 37 (Cockrell 12). Total fouls - Keokuk 10, Williamsburg 12. Fouled out - None. Turnovers - Keokuk 13, Williamsburg 12.

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